We have only made it halfway through January but already 2008 has brought a lot or excitement to our family... unfortunately, not all of it good.

1) Leo has dumped diapers - YAY! Just like Clara, he decided one day to wear underwear and has been working hard at getting to the toilet in time ever since. In fact, after day 2 of no dipes we've barely seen any accidents! We're completely proud and very impressed by the big boy.

2) Lice. Need I say more? Poor Clara had lice, we only realized two days before school started. After I got over my initial, disgust, horror, embarrassment (am I a bad mother) we got to work at eradicating the little buggers from her head and our home. Thankfully Leo and I were spared the hours of combing and of course, Marc had very little to worry about.

Clara was a trooper. She exceeded our expectations and was calm throughout the entire discovery, treatment, and 3 hour combing session that went on late into he night. Of course, she had www.webkins.com to get her through my nitpicking sessions. I still feel minimally guilty about not finding the lice sooner but I'm giving myself a break. It was the Christmas holidays and I was not brushing or tying her hair up everyday because I thought I did not have to worry about lice. I now know, you can still get lice the last days of school so one should continue to be vigilant even when school is not in session /RANT

We took the lice infestation as an opportunity for a serious haircut - I probably reduced the combing sessions by about an hour with the haircut. I did the majority of the hacking myself and took Clara to the hairdresser a day later to even it all up and to add some bangs which Clara had been considering for quite awhile already. Clara is enjoying the change and I'm getting used too the new face I see every day. I'll be happy if we never see another lice in this house again but I also know the experience was not nearly as awful or disgusting as I though it would be. I did get an amazing amount of laundry done though... just about every textile in this house is ready to begin the new year!
3) Malcolm came to stay for a weekend. I got to experience 3 kids under my roof for a weekend. Unfortunately, it was a tough weekend. Leo was getting some unexplained low grade fevers, Malcolm had a cold and was teething (at least that is what Patricia and I surmised) and Marc was coming down with some sickies as well. Despite the timing not being excellent I think the weekend accomplished what it was supposed to; Malcolm had fun, Patricia and Ashley got some alone time, and I got to spend some time getting to know the little dude as we affectionately call that book-reading maniac!
4) Strep Throat. It turns out the sickie Marc was working on while Malcolm was with us turned into a nasty case of Strep. I've never seen Marc as sick or in as much discomfort as he was last Monday. It took the entire day to see a doctor and get a script for antibiotics. Thank goodness the abx started working on Tuesday, it was weird having Marc around but not able to say a word. The kids kept asking him things and talking to him and could not get a grasp on the idea that Papa was essentially mute. Marc seems mostly better now but I just got word that Ashley had a positive Strep test last night and Patricia is waiting for results of hers as well. Clara, Leo and I went to the CLSC yesterday morning as a precaution and had the 3 minute strep test done - all were negative - woohoo!